What is the tag F.L.I.293 HALL Found in Milwaukee
- Thread starter schill13
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Bilgemaster
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Such octagonal tags were used for many purposes: dog licenses, locker or storage key fobs, coat check tags, and even markers worn by "rented" slaves in the antebellum South (though these typically had the slave's occupational skill given), but perhaps one of the commonest uses were as "tool tags" in factories or other concerns. Typically, it worked like this: a worker needing a specific tool would check it out from an equipment room by handing over one of his tags, which was hung or otherwise put in place of the tool. When the tool was returned, the worker got back the tag.
A trip to or reaching out to the good folks at the Milwaukee Public Library with their period business and telephone directories and other resources may decipher what those "F.L.I" and "Hall" inscriptions might denote. Sadly, such local history resources do not seem to be online, or at least freely so, but are described here: http://www.mpl.org/local_history/business_history.php. From the typeface of the numerals I might suggest focusing on the 1920s through the '40s.
A trip to or reaching out to the good folks at the Milwaukee Public Library with their period business and telephone directories and other resources may decipher what those "F.L.I" and "Hall" inscriptions might denote. Sadly, such local history resources do not seem to be online, or at least freely so, but are described here: http://www.mpl.org/local_history/business_history.php. From the typeface of the numerals I might suggest focusing on the 1920s through the '40s.
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